TO BE DISABLED OR BLACK IN AMERICA

 

             I often think about what it would like not to be disabled.  But then, I think about what it is like not be a black man.   You see, I’m both so I can compare the two from a position of experience.

            Born in Chicago in 1966, I thought the hardest thing was to be black or African-American male in America.  Having grown up in the Hyde Park and the University of Chicago neighborhood, yes, I do remember in route to Kenwood H.S., walking past a home that would later be the Chicago home of the future President of the United States.  

            Years later, the Travon Martin shooting in Florida happened.  Was he profiled because he happened to be in the neighborhood?  He had a right to be there but that didn’t matter.  I had a right to be in Hyde Park but that too didn’t matter. I, like Travon, were youths just trying to get where we were going. Oh wait a minute, we are black.

            Now, I am disabled and in a scooter.  Yes, the scooter gives me some independence but its nothing like being able to walk.  But I ask myself would George Zimmerman have profiled me if I had been in a scooter?  Would Travon have been profiled if he was in a scooter?

            I now notice things since being in a scooter.  No one feels threaten by me.  White men don’t have to worry about me stealing their women – the sexually strong black male – is no longer.  White women don’t clutch tighter their purse because I’m near.  Police don’t stop me anymore because now they probable say to themselves, he don’t fit the description and besides he couldn’t have done it.

            Had Travon been in a scooter would George had profiled him?  Would Travon be alive today had he been in a scooter?  Would George have drove past dismissing him?  Would George’s self defense claim been totally ridiculous? Yes, I can’t play basketball or baseball with my sons.  Yes, I won’t make it to all their track meets because of the double vision. Yes, I can’t have long walks on the Lakefront with my sweetheart.

            I can’t do those things any more. But now, I won’t be shot because someone feels threaten. I suffer from multiple sclerosis which is the same thing that First Lady’s father suffered from. Yea, I’m in a scooter but I’m alive.  George would have dismissed me.  There would have been no confrontation. Looking at what happened to Travon and as long there are people like George Zimmerman around, I ask myself:  Would I rather be disabled or a black male in America?  RIP Travon.